He will be a great asset to the side and help some of their good young talent coming through eg Dylan Farrell and Junior Vai Vai, and he may even make Talanoa a better winger as well. I'm not expecting miracles from GI next season until he settles in. Also Souths just signed Sam Burgess' little brother George for two seasons, hes 18 and 195cm and 120kg will play under 20's initially and probably firsts at some stage. Whats surprises me with this is,is this part of the salary cap? if so how the hell can they sign him? it cant be included next seasons cap or there must be concessions for u20's?. Im not totally up on every aspect of the salary cap.

Any Americans catch the rugby 7's tournament that was shown on nbc over the weekend? I've been reading some articles about rugby's growth in the US and interested if anyone caught a glimpse. Would be great if one day rugby could get to a level of popularity similar to ice hockey over there...that would be enough for a decent pro league and I'm sure would result in a very competitive international side. If there's an NFL lockout this year, there's talk NBC will show rugby world cup matches in some of the football time slots, which would be massive exposure for the game.

Super 15 starts this weekend! I've been itching for the football season to start again for a couple of weeks now.

Looking forward to the Waratahs vs Rebels match. Would be good if the rebels can have a decent season, but I think they're going to get smashed by the tahs tomorrow night. Also looking forward to see if the Reds can play the same sort of rugby they played last year. Their membership numbers have increased significantly after how they played last year. I wish the waratahs would take notice.

Re the NRL, I think St George will go back to back this year. Canterbury will be strong and I think Melbourne will be too...they have something to prove. Funnily enough I think the whole salary cap fiasco has increased their level of support in Melbourne. In the long run it might have been a really good thing for them and rugby league in melbourne. I'd like to see the storm and the rebels kind of unite down there a little bit. Go against the typical stand off between union and league and create mutual benefit. Maybe one year they could have a double header...or if not, when they both have home games on the same weekend have double pass offers. There's loads of ways they could help each other.

Mint on the NRL i think you may be right with St George/Illawarra they will go back to back, already they have some no name forwards doing well, Bennett like Bellamy can produce these guys like a factory conveyor belt. My top 8 this years is

St George/IllTigersBulldogsRoostersTitansRaidersRabbitohsBroncos

I hope rabbits make top 8 they have the players but will they gel? with Sutton and sandow fire, will Inglis fit in and be fit? will Issac Luke, Taylor Burgess stay fit, they should make top 4 but they gut me every year. Broncos will do ok with some young players a year more experiences and Ben Hannant back, Bulldogs have bought well i like Moore as a coach they will be top 4, Raiders will be ok with Orford there, no Campese till about June but i predict Josh Dugan to will Dally M and be NSW fullback this year.

So the Melbourne Rebels scored their first ever win, Mortlock first try scorer. I thought their defence was really good at times and they spread the ball and took some chances, which is very un rugby like these days. Controversial penalty to get the win but good luck to them.Another interesting fact about the Reds V Waratahs kind of billed as a state of origin like contest (lol) there are five NSW players in the QLD Reds and three QLD players in the waratahs. I'm still a Waratahs fans even though i live in QLD these days.

Well that's what you get with northern hemisphere rugby! Tri Nations > 6 Nations

Though apparently Wales vs Italy was a good game.

Good for Melbourne to get their first win. Terrible refereeing throughout the match, but it was a great defensive effort and pretty exciting last 10 minutes or so.

The Waratahs are looking very good. The reds forwards aren't winning enough quick ball and so their backs are stifled. I'm sure they'll come good again though. Tough match for the Waratahs this Friday against the Crusaders. Not sure whether the emotion of the Christchurch earthquake will help or hinder the Crusaders...but even though I'm a Waratahs fan I wouldn't mind seeing the Crusaders win that game. And I hope the rugby world cup games don't have to be moved from christchurch.

Just a quick question - who do you guys think would be the greatest Union player of all time?

Im not too sure, there have been plenty from each nation.I would say Mark Ella, David Campese and John Eales are the wallabies best. The game has been around since 1871 there could have been some legends back then. The All blacks have had plenty and Wales, scotand, ireland, the springboks have had their share of greats. My personal opinion is Mark Ella.

Just a quick question - who do you guys think would be the greatest Union player of all time?

New Zealand have been by far the most successful rugby union nation in history and a few years ago Colin "Pinetree" Meads was voted the greatest ever All Black. He was a tough as nails 2nd rower.

So he might be the greatest ever forward, along with the likes of Eales, Sean Fitzpatrick, Richie McCaw, Victor Matfield, Michael Jones and Martin Johnson.

In the backs pick any of Mark Ella, Christian Cullen, Stephen Larkham, Dan Carter, Hugo Porta, Serge Blanco, Gareth Edwards, JPR Williams, David Campese, Jonah Lomu, Rupeni Caucau (very ill disciplined person and had a peak of only about 3 years or so...but no one could touch Rupeni at his best) Brian O'Driscoll and a number of others. It's really hard to just pick out one guy as the best. It's not really one of those sports where there's a clear cut number 1...like say cricket, basketball or ice hockey.

Mark Ella is a good pick John. He kept Wally Lewis on the bench in the Australian schoolboys rugby side the year they were in it. I remember seeing a documentary about Mark Ella where Lewis said that of everyone he played with, Mark Ella was the best/most skillful (can't remember exact words)...and he only played with Ella as a school boy! It's too bad he retired so early. Maybe another 4 or 5 years at the top and he could have cemented himself as that best player ever. Or at least he could have converted to rugby league and become the all time greatest dual international.

Mint, I still have fond memories of Mark Ella playing for Randwick with his two brothers Gary and Glen, the skills they produced revolutionised the game, Mark Ella was one of the best footballers ive seen, and his time at international Rugby was superb, retired at 25, which was such a shame, i don't think we saw his absolute best. I think St George tried to get him to come to League but failed he would have been a dual for sure.

Good to see Italy win that match. Always better to watch when it's so obvious how much it means to the players and supporters. Italy are hard to beat at home. The big challenge for them is to start competing in away games.

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